The Marauders Odyssey
by Bariloche
Summary: A story about the marauders last two years at hogwarts, the pranks, the story and the friendships.
1. Wands

Disclaimer: I don't own this it is all based of J. K. Rowling.

AN: please review this is my first time posting and I want to now what you think. If you do review don't just tell me it sucks, tell me why it sucks.

Prologue: Ollivander's

It was a warm day, the kind of day during which families go on picnics in the countryside, that "ideal" day. That day Diagon alley would be playing host to 3 young wizards destined to change the magical world.

Remus 

Looking at the boy one would never guess that he was one of these three. He clung to his mothers hand and had cuts and bruises all over his body.

The boy was not feeling great right now, he looked around at all the smiling faces. And thought, 'None of them were like him, no one understood him. Right now more than ever he wished he was normal, that he wasn't a _werewolf_. Even inside his head he whispered it, afraid someone would hear him. He was ashamed of himself, of course the headmaster had "said" that it wasn't any trouble but they both new it was not true. He shouldn't even be going to Hogwarts...'

"Remus. Don't think about that right now, you've got a wand to choose." To Remus surprise they were right in front of Ollivander's. It was not an imposing building like Gringots or an inviting one like the Ice cream shop that they had passed a little while ago. It was a dark dusty shabby place full of spiders. He suddenly noticed that a small man much like his shop was in the room.

"Hello ollivander" said his dad

Ollivander responded immediately not even straining himself to remember, "oak, 10 ¾ inches, dragon heartstring core, great for powerful spells and dueling"

"Yes perfect considering I became an Auror"

"Lets see how he does, hmm, lets try this nice hazel wand, I think you'll like it"

Remus reached for the wand, and gave it a shake but nothing happened, feeling disappointed he returned it only to find that ollivander had already picked out another one and was giving it to him. After (from Remus' point of view) an eternity he felt it. The second his hand touched the beautiful wood a thrill ran through him, the air around him lit up with images of him performing extraordinary feats with his wand a group of friends all around him a full moon in the sky. He felt someone tap his shoulder, it was his mom, "do you think this is the one?

Sirius

"Come on, Sirius. No don't stop to stare. Sirius are you even paying attention to me." Sirius as you may have guessed was not paying attention to his father. In fact he was so adept at tuning his father, no make that his whole family out that (since the age of 8) his whole life seemed to have acquired a pleasant sort of background music, similar to elevator music in that it was seldom heard and never thought of. His mind was at this moment focused on bigger and more important things: a new model of a Cleansweep: number 3. A sharp slap from his mother woke him from his internal worship, and as she reminded him not to humiliate the family he muttered, "And slapping your own son for looking at a broom won't humiliate the family?"

His parents continued as if they hadn't heard, "we are going to Ollivander's now."

As with many one-track minds Sirius had already forgotten the Cleansweep and was focusing on his next task choosing a wand. Although Sirius tried to remain calm and nonchalant his face and tone could not hide his excitement. He was going to have a wand, and by his calculations he would be able to annoy and torture his family at least twice as effectively, he couldn't wait.

As soon as they got in Ollivander began his work. Not exchanging words more than necessary with Sirius' parents or their son. Initially Ollivander gave Sirius wands with Dementor skin or basilisk scale cores but since none of them worked, he started giving out rather elegant wands as opposed to the large harsh frightening ones that he had been giving out earlier. Suddenly after many tries Sirius finally sensed that something was right. As he took hold of the wand a lion appeared and snarled at his parents who backed away quickly, he couldn't wait to try it out.

James 

He was happy, he was elated, he was euphoric, _he was getting a wand_. These had been his thoughts since he had woken up at 6and almost 9 hours later they were still as prevalent in his mind as ever. Understandably this had provoked some frustration in his parents having to deal with a slightly hyperactive 11 year old 6 in the morning was hardly their idea of rest. Es could hear his dad saying to his mom, "I can't believe I took a day off of work for this, this is harder than work. Does he ever stop talking, I swear to god I will put a silencing charm on him."

He heard his mom say something in return but none of it penetrated as his I'm going to have a wand thought process restarted. Even the new broomstick models failed to entrance him or for that matter hold his attention for more than a few seconds. With a wand he would be able to o anything he wanted. More importantly however he would be able to go to Hogwarts.

His parents told so many stories about it. He knew that he was going to be a Gryffindor and that he would be great at magic and be on the Quidditch team. Hogwarts he _knew_ would be perfect. Lost in his daydreams he found himself on the doorstep of Ollivander's and thinking, 'this is the beginning of my magical life' he walked in.

He was immediately astounded by the place's smallness and darkness it didn't look like the kind of place to buy the one item that would let him make extraordinary magic. However after seeing his parents greet ollivander warmly (and vice versa) he felt himself trusting the small man. And after a few quick tests ollivander handed him his first wand, nothing happened a few wands later he still hadn't felt any thing. Right before he was about to lose hope and had begun to think that he was a squib it happened, he grabbed the dark wood and a circle of light spread out from him turning every Slytherin witch or wizard into a lion wearing Gryffindor colors. Hogwarts was going to be great.

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Authors note. Please review. This is my first time writing, tell me what you think.

Also these where the wands I gave the three characters:

James' wand is Mahogany, 11 inches phoenix, pliable (excellent for transfiguration) (source J. K. Rowling)

Remus' wand is Rosewood 10 ½ unicorn. Source (my invention) 

Sirius' wand is Birch dragon 11 ¼. Source (my invention)


	2. A Chaotic Beginning

Disclaimer: I don't own the harry potter universe, it is all J.K.Rowlings

Be warned this chapter was written completely under the influence of scrubs.

For those who do not know Scrubs is a hilarious show about doctors who are social idiots, and all their weird situations.

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Chapter two Quidditch

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"Come on Peter hurry up, we've almost missed the carriages" yelled Sirius as the marauders ran through the rapidly accelerating train, they reached the door and saw that they would have too jump and hope for the best. Making a split second decision James grabbed his friends and jumped.

"We are way to far away we won't reach the carriages in time." gasped Remus slowly getting up from the ground, "The carriages are already moving."

The boys slowly got up from the ground, "Anyone have any ideas?" asked Sirius.

"Well we could run?" said Peter thoughtfully.

"Shut up Peter" said James with a tone of finality, "We could only reach them in time if we ran twice as fast as we can and obviously we can't."

"No actually Peter is right," Sirius gave a mock gasp and Remus continued, "Peter is right. Sirius, you James and Peter transform. I'll ride James and Peter can ride Sirius."

Realizing the urgency of the situation they all transformed and got on their respective animals. They immediately began sprinting towards the carriages. When they were next to the carriages Remus vanished the window and dived in. He made a large crash muttering, "I am way too old to be doing this." then he dived to the floor to avoid a rat that was flying claws extended straight as his head. He ducked and saw the rat smash against the other side of the carriage. The rat flopped down under the seat and got stuck.

"Don't transform Peter" Remus whispered but it was to late, Peter had already started. The seat broke with the stress of a pudgy boy expanding below it and at the same time Remus turned his head to see a dog ten feet away getting ready to jump. Resigning himself to the fact that this was going to get even more chaotic and he couldn't stop it Remus threw out his arms to catch the dog and closed his eyes. A few seconds later he heard a muffled scream he opened his eyes to find the carriage door open and half of Sirius' body trailing in the dirt outside the carriage. Trying to ignore student's stares he hoisted Sirius up and began preparing an excuse.

Suddenly he heard Sirius say, "get ready for Prongs" Remus looked out the window to see a thankfully human prongs running towards them, attracting, if possible, even more stares than Sirius. He Jumped in and closed the door quickly.

James the least stunned and harmed immediately started talking, "Okay Remus. You are credible. Figure out an excuse for the teachers. Sirius, make up a story for the students. Peter, wait Peter?" Peter was in a contorted position under the seat and unconscious, "Okay I will work on fixing Peter and the carriage, go."

10 minutes some fast thinking, fast magic and a few swears later the boys were walking into the great halls, carefully controlled rumors (made and spread by Sirius) were flying from student to student, the teachers had been told the excuse and both Peter and the carriage were in pristine condition.

With the exception of Remus none of the Marauders were paying much attention to Dumbledore or the sorting. Sirius was, as always hungry, and was controlling his urges to throw his plate at one of the first years by grabbing the table so tightly his knuckles where whitening.

In fact when the food appeared his initial lunge to be the first at the steak almost tipped over the whole table, while the rest of the students pulled the table back Sirius took no notice and used the extra time to serve himself a lot of everything. As he was beginning to eat Sirius decided that he would have to remember that serving strategy: lunge and serve, but only a second later he forgot it as he engaged in an eating contest with James.

A while later the plates where cleared and the great hall became a place of conversation and acquaintance between students. Suddenly Dumbledore began to speak. It began as the standard set of rules for the year but ended very differently, "This year Hogwarts will be the site of the U18 European Quidditch cup, it will be played between, Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, La Bella Magia, and La Academia De Barcelona de Magia. Each school will send the winner of their schools league to Hogwarts for a 2 month tournament. More details about this event will be given when a team has won the Hogwarts cup. Until tomorrow, goodnight."

As everyone began their ascent towards their respective dormitories the marauders began talking about the coming year, in public their conversation was constrained to school but the second they got to their dormitories and had taken off the spells put on only their room to be able to hear them (think a magical bug).

They began a tradition that they had done ever since second year on the first year. They made a list of goals the goals where usually divided into romantic athletic marauder and academic goals. Each marauder would put one down for each. Each marauder would then throw out one goal until there was only one left (the most important) they then each wrote binding oaths that they would fulfill each of their own goals if they didn't or couldn't they would suffer a marauder decided punishment that was less harmful the less important the goal was. 15 minutes later their lists looked like this:

James: 1. Go on a date with Lily. 2. Win the U18 European Quidditch cup. 3. Pull an all including prank (even Dumbledore). Also continue to help Remus with his transformations. 4. Resist all urges to study for tests.

Sirius: 1. WIN THE QUIDDITCH CUP!!! 2. Torture annoy and hurt Snape so that he leaves school. 3. Date at least 7 girls, at least one Italian and one French. 4. get all Os. Piss off my family.

Remus: 1.Go on a date with Margaret. 2.Get all Os 3. Somehow slow down, temper, or calm the marauders. 4. Don't let the Quidditch cup consume my, Sirius and james' life.

Peter: 4. Be included in remus' commentary once 1.Be smarter. 2. Go on a date. Maybe. 3. be more assertive to marauders.

These where the goals the marauders set for themselves and as they chatted each wondered what the New Year would bring. However mostly they were relishing in the joy that friends have after being reunited after long absence. They were, except for James and Sirius who had had to endure each other all summer, just happy to be home with their best friends.

(AN I think that the fact that I was listening to the Scrubs song between Turk and J.D. about guy love and it unconsciously seeped into the writing.)

They talked long into the night prospecting their chances on the cup and James' chances with Lily. When they finally got to sleep it was with the happy notion of an all consuming prank affecting even the teachers and canceling class for three days.

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Please review I need a reason to write. As I said before don't say it sucks say why it sucks.


	3. The First Day

Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry potter universe. It is all J. K. Rowling's.

A.N Please review. I do not feel that I am a great writer but I want to improve, so it would really help me to know what you think of the story.

The next day the 6th year boys were woken rudely by a slightly crazed Remus. Ever since third year the marauders had relied on Remus to get to their classes on time. This was, in many ways they soon realized, a mistake.

Not only had they put someone who actually cared about waking up early in charge of waking up but Remus took this opportunity as a chance to harass them as much as possible.

This morning he woke them with a gentle Levicorpus a few feet of their bed and some water summoned from the lake onto each boy.

Truth be told this was one of Moony's favorite parts of the day. It was one of the few times where he was in the position of power and could get back at them for never listening to him as a prefect.

Each boy reacted to the sudden wakening in different ways. James made a small bleary eyed stumble towards Remus while muttering swears but ended up tangling himself in his blanket and crashing onto the floor.

Peter just scrunched up on his bed massaging his head and tried to go back to sleep.

Sirius had the most and successful parry to Remus' attack and for a young man blinded by light and closing his eyes it was nothing short of heroic.

He stumbled out of bed, transformed into a dog, walked next to Remus and gave a shake soaking Remus almost as much as Sirius himself. He then sauntered of to Peter and James licking them and jumping all over them.

A few minutes later they were making their way to the great hall, "Remus you have to lay off us a bit" said James, "It's the first day of school."

"Good habits have to be started early." Said Remus way too happily for Sirius taste.

"You are too adult" said Sirius angrily, "you have to be more like us."

"I'm not sure that's in your best interest Sirius, if I were like you guys and had three sleeping people at my mercy I would be much crueler than I was. As for the too adult claim, I resent that, would an adult have doused you with water and dropped you four feet to the ground?"

"Yes" said Sirius in an impossible attempt to keep the argument going.

"Quit it Sirius" said James, "You can't and never will be able to debate Remus, he has an answer to everything."

Peter who had up till know had a traumatic start to his 6th year asked, "Do you think that McGonagall will let me continue care of magical creatures after that little incident with the Ashwinders."

"Oh yeah" said James in a reminiscent tone "all of Hogwarts was racing to find the eggs they had to cancel classes. I forgot to thank you for making me miss potions Peter"

"No problem" said Peter absent mindedly but his mind was still on care of magical creatures.

As they walked into the great hall Remus whispered to James, "Hey, there's Lily, are you going to ask her out."

Sirius who had been listening whispered sarcastically, "Yeah James, 77th times the charm."

James, momentarily forgetting his friends walked over to Lily and sat down heavily next to her and started looking over her shoulder. When she could ignore James no longer lily set down the pencil she was using to mark up her schedule and said, not even trying to hide her contempt, "Can you please stop breathing in my ear Potter."

"Gladly," said James, "Will you go out with me?, Me, you, Hogsmeade and Butterbeer, can't you just picture it Evans?"

"No I can't picture it and also a little advice for the next time you ask someone out: you don't usually ask someone out using their last name." Said Lily grabbing her stuff.

"Sirius told me it was sexy. Would you like to reconsider this one time offer _Evans?_" Said James in his attempt at suave voice as he reached up to muss his hair.

"One time what is this like the 50th time?" scoffed Lily, "by the way if you muss your hair I will punch you, it drives me crazy."

James being the idiot he was decided that he would ruffle his hair anyways. Lily seeing what an idiot James was decided to punch him and although it didn't make him fall to the ground it still forced him to grab on to the table.

James watched the laughing marauders approaching him and prepared himself for teasing. Remus started it off, "Oh well, 78th time lucky, shucks."

Unexpectedly though Sirius came to his aid, "Lets not bother making fun of him, he is hopeless, I can tell that right now all that he is thinking about is how beautiful she looked before she punched him, isn't that right James?"

"What, huh" said James clearly lost, "Peter do you think that when she said that me mussing up my hair drove her crazy she meant that it exasperated her or that she liked it."

"Come on Peter don't hold back, give it to him straight." prompted Remus.

"Okay, James I'm telling this to you as a friend who thinks it's time for you to find a new obsession: She hates you and I'm going to venture a guess that the "It drives me crazy" phrase was meant as something negative, the reason I say that is because she punched you shortly afterward."

James was not fazed in the slightest and he happily pronounced, "She didn't punch me."

Remus was not convinced and slightly frustrated at James inability to see the truth, "She punched you."

"No" said James with the tone of someone explaining something to a dull toddler, "She was so turned on by me that her need to touch me was accidentally expressed by an unintentional punch, she then fled the scene in shame. Oh yeah, Sirius thanks for the last name tip it totally worked."

"Yeah sure." said a confused Sirius, "Err, anytime"

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Unfortunately the fun part of the day ended with that incident because the marauders had a less then good Monday.

They started of the day with double charms, had lunch, an elective, transfiguration and finished off with another elective.

Sirius' electives where Care Of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies. Although he didn't care much about Muggle studies he saw it as an act of rebellion and was determined to send his parents an O in that at least.

Peter was taking the same electives. Muggle studies as an easy A/E and Care Of Magical Creatures because McGonagall had told him that for him it was required.

James and Remus where taking Divination and Arithmancy for the pure reason that they could not handle having the same schedule as Sirius and Peter.

All Gryffindor 6th years where also taking NEWT level Astronomy but only when something special could be seen and every other Sunday.

Peter hadn't made it into NEWT level Potions or Defense Against The Dark Arts, and the only reason he had made Transfiguration was because of his practice as Animagi.

As the 6th year boys Aka: The Marauders. Walked towards Charms Sirius prompted, "Do you think that Ms. O'Connor will be even harder now that it is a NEWT level course?"

"Can she be harder" asked Peter, I mean what is she going to do give us an essay today.

They were interrupted by the voice of an old lady screeching, "Stop your whining Mr. Pettigrew, or I will give you an essay. All we are doing today is reacquainting ourselves with charms by having a little 100 Pt. one and a half hour test on what you should have studied over the summer."

Sirius who hadn't touched his charms books over the summer tried to use his charm, "Ms. O'Connor, may I just say, you look lovely today, not a day over 50. Whatever you are doing it is working. Speaking about working you know, I, being the hard worker I am did my reading the instant I got home, I think I and the rest of the class would really appreciate an extra day to reread the books."

"Mr. Black, we are having our test today and if you get less than an A on it you will be seeing me in detention this Friday where you will have to complement and flatter me until I feel young again."

"Sirius, I would try not to fail, it would probably take an eternity to make her feel young again," said James. As the tests where being handed out he whispered to Sirius, "You could always just kiss her, that should make her feel like 25 right of the bat." Leaving Sirius wincing at the mental image James started the test.

3 hours later they were all outside, Sirius with a rather pained expression on his face, "come on" said James, "She'll probably forget anyways, lets go eat lunch".

The boys had an uneventful rest of the day and as they were walking towards the library (to follow Remus' saying, "You can't ever be ahead on Homework, your just not behind") their conversation about Sirius' chances with Ms. O'Connor was interrupted by Frank Longbottom their Quidditch captain, "Hey Sirius, James, we will be holding the Quidditch tryouts this Saturday all day. I expect that a lot of people will show up since we are holding the U18 European Quidditch cup, so I'm going to need you there. James I want you to help me organize the tryouts and practice schedule so lets meet Wednesday at 7:00 in the library. Ok, see you there bye." He said quickly, and walking off he left the small group standing there slightly stunned by the quickness (and one-sidedness) of the exchange.

"Well" said Remus, "it looks like Frank is going to be a great Quidditch captain very, err, efficient."

"Is it just me or are all Quidditch captains completely crazy workaholics?" asked Sirius.

"That's me next year." said James in a slightly awed voice.

"Whoa, buddy boy, don't you think that you might be jumping the gun a bit" said Remus.

"Nope not at all" responded James effortlessly, "Me and Sirius will have the most experience on the team by more than 2 years, and if it is between me and Sirius, well lets just say that Dumbledore would have to be twice as crazy as he is to put Sirius in a position of even slight responsibility."

"I stand corrected" admitted Remus as they began their homework, "let's start by deciphering these transfiguration diagrams and packets. You guys can explain to me how this whole human transformation thing works"

30 minutes later they were being chased out of the library by a screeching Madame Pince and James was handing Sirius a galleon saying, "Thanks next time its my turn."

"What did you just say James" said an exasperated Remus, "you paid Sirius to get us kicked out of the library for a month?"

"Yeah, we can distract you way more easily in the common room." said James.

Sirius finished, "When you are distracted we do less work and enjoy ourselves more. Don't deny you don't enjoy working in the common room more to, Margaret always asks for your help in transfiguration."

Sure enough as soon as the marauders entered the common room a feminine voice called, "Remus, can you come help me out with my transfiguration please, I don't understand the way Lily is explaining it."

James immediately seeing the opportunity pushed Remus forward and said "lets go help the poor girl out." As they sat down he cleverly positioned himself next to Lily. Leaned to look at Margaret's paper and when his head was right in Lily's view quickly ruffled his own hair. Suddenly he felt very tired and had just begun to recognize this as the Sonnoro sleeping spell when he lost consciousness.

AN: Again please review, tell me the strengths (if any) and the weaknesses.

Do you think I should have OC's (like Margaret) I am considering making her Lily's friend and an important character, same for Frank Longbottom. Tell me what you think.

Also a huge thank you for my first and only reviewer mischief manage: I appreciate the "it doesn't suck" and although I don't know whether I will tell a few stories of the marauders earlier years I might do it later on. I refrained from doing that for this chapter just because I have a pretty good idea about what I am doing for the next few chapters, after that who knows. Thank you very much for the review.


	4. Pranks Amid Death

Disclaimer: all J. K. Rowling's brilliant idea. I don't own any of it.

An: I hope you enjoy the chapter, Please review. A simple it's good is enough.

Pranks Amid Death

A few days later the boys where beginning to settle into their Hogwarts habits. Their classes with the exception of charms and defense against the dark arts had gotten of to good start. Charms had started of with Ms. O'Connor's test and had been getting progressively more difficult since then.

In fact yesterday they had gotten their graded tests back and predictably the second he got it back Sirius flipped it over and yelled "damn" Ms O'Connor had just said, "I'll see you Friday, please prepare you compliments, with a little groan Sirius had resigned himself.

The Defense against the dark arts teacher was a middle aged man of absolutely no knowledge.

He had the odd quality of being so absolutely average your eyes almost slid off him. He had brown hair blue eyes and was of average height. Although new this year most of the school felt that there was already nothing to learn from him, nothing more to him. He was also the head of the Slytherin house and let them get away with almost anything.

He would have been bearable if he hadn't clung to the belief held by all teachers who do not now their subject that he could get through the year looking intelligent to his students and the staff by keeping up a perpetual mountain of work on his students back. This first week alone they had already had 2 essays and a "quiz" on all the magically developed countries and their dark magic history.

Today however was Sunday and as they had some prank planning to do the marauders woke up bright and early. After their usual morning argument with Remus about how his, according to Sirius, "cruel and unusual torture was a form of harassment" Remus asked, "Why did it take you so long to wake up today anyway, I was afraid I had beaten you into a vegetative state.

James was quick to answer, "Peter is just always like that but me and Sirius have real exc- _reasons_. Longbottom has been killing us and honestly I can't say I blame him this year Quidditch is the most important thing in Hogwarts. I mean we have practices every day from 4 to 7. And we have a ton of homework from everything forgive me if I don't wake up early"

The boys found themselves in the common room where they saw Margaret and lily disappearing through the door.

Margaret was one of the few girls in the school who could rival Lily Evans in anything so it was obvious that the two immediately became fast friends. She looked quite a lot like lily she had shoulder length dark red hair but with a slightly darker complexion. She had very dark almost black brown eyes and was of a middling height. She was a good student. The type of student that didn't speak up in class much but was not shy in the least. Her grades were not as good as Lily's but not because of inferior intellect but rather because she didn't care as much. She was and had been for 3 years in the slight conundrum of being friends of both lily and the Marauders.

As they ran forward to catch up with the girls Remus continued the argument,

"James it is 11:00 if I hadn't woken you up we wouldn't have enough time to practice and pull the prank also breakfast is almost ending." Rationalized Remus.

"What are you talking about" asked Margaret.

"My cruel and unusual forms of punishment" answered moony sarcastically.

"it is torture" said Peter, "see that bruise right there" he pointed at his arm, "Moony's work the first day of school."

"What did the big bad wolf do" teased Margaret.

"No, no he was human" said Peter stupidly.

"as always" added James, " anyways he levicorpused us out of bed and onto the ground and then summoned some lake water to splash us a bit"

As they walked into the great hall Sirius asked, "Moony why does the clock say 8:30"

"Because it is 8:30 said Remus brightly, "just practicing for the tape"

"What tape" asked Lily who had been silent throughout the conversation.

"just a little audition tape for the school play" answered james smoothly forgetting in his nervousness at actually having a 2 sided conversation with Lily that the school didn't do a tape.

"Good job Remus" said Peter admiringly, "what do I get to say in the tape"

"You'll find out soon peter, you'll have as big a part as the rest of us" assured James, happy with the happiness his words had evoked in Peter at being included.

James happy that Lily had decided to live and let live was suddenly surprised to see Sirius start sprinting towards the Gryffindor table. Having shared a dormitory with Sirius the last 5 years had taught him a few things about this childish and immature individual. This idiosyncrasy however was known to everyone, Sirius loved to eat the last pancake left on the plate.

Oh sure the plate would refill itself 15 seconds later but eating the last pancake on a large platter always made Sirius feel like he had accomplished something, it was so fulfilling.

The reason for his sprint however was because someone was reaching towards it. Coming to an abrupt stop in front of the last pancake Sirius calmly said to the small 1st year, "Don't touch the pancake, it's mine" as soon as the trembling child backed down Sirius grabbed the pancake and began to prepare it with zeal.

Meanwhile the marauders and the girls where pursuing idle chatter over school and other just when the conversation was beginning to get interesting (Quidditch) they heard a loud yell and turned to watch Sirius topple of the bench a bit of pancake in his mouth as he fell a fork fell from his mouth. A few seconds later they heard a sob from the young child who Sirius had challenged over the pancake. Lily rushed towards him saying, "It's okay, Sirius isn't hurt just erm"

"Stabbed the roof of his mouth with his fork, he was a little excited about the pancake." Said James helpfully noticing that nobody was helping Sirius up. As of one mind both lily and James realized that there had to be something else bothering the child they looked down and saw spread out on the table a few tear drops marring the official document a statement confirming the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Flanagan.

Realizing the situation James said to Lily quietly, "you deal with Sirius I'll talk to him" he then turned to the young boy, "want to go see the headmaster" said James kindly. The boy nodded his head apparently not yet ready for words, he looked shocked and stunned.

James decided to help the boy, "You know while I was in second year I got a letter, just like this one It told me that My parents and my 10 year old sister were dead." He said bitterly, "the ministry expressed their condolences" remembering that this wasn't about him he turned back to the boy in the beginning I was in denial, in a way I still am, whenever I am back at the house I always expect to see my dad reading the newspaper, or my mom playing with Izzy.

When you lose a someone close you think you will never learn to enjoy life again, luckily I had my friends and they were able to help me get through it" they had arrived at the staircase, "Dumbledore helped me a lot to."

Since the marauders came up to Dumbledore's office once a month in their invisibility cloak to figure out the new password James was well informed and he said, "Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans." They went up the stairs in silence and when they got to the top James said, "you're going to get through this if you need any help just ask for James Potter." hoping he had made a difference in the poor kids life James' thoughts turned back to his own family.

Meanwhile at the great hall Lily Margaret and Remus where talking about James family lily started, "so how did James react when he found out" she asked.

"He was furious didn't cry like Flanagan did he just went straight into denial, tried to kill the owl that brought the letter. Me and Sirius grabbed him and took him to Dumbledore's office after which he left Hogwarts for around 2 weeks.

When he came back we didn't do any pranks for 3 months it felt like James had been replaced with a replica that was just going through the motions. His grades dropped he didn't even try to maintain friendships and he even lost interest in Quidditch, he dropped out of the team.

We obviously were desperate to draw out the old James what we ended up doing was telling him that we had gone into the forbidden forest to investigate the rumors of an Acromantula clan living in the forest.

We hid in Hagrid's hut and grabbed him before he went in. He got mad at us but from then he got better, I guess he just learned to live with it. His parents died at the hands of Voldemort so now James says that he is going to be an Auror." After this monologue and a bit more talking James appeared through the doorway. Lily noticed he looked saddened.

"Lily" james said in a low voice, "Since you're a prefect I was wondering if you could talk to Dumbledore about something on my behalf"

"Sure" she responded, "what."

"well watching that kid suffer through what I have gone through reminded me the horror that letter brought. I thought that the boy needed some human help or even just presence. I was wondering if you could ask Dumbledore to start stopping these letters from reaching students and telling them personally, one on one."

"Yeah I'll go right now responded Lily, "good idea, it seems less traumatizing" and with that she left."

"Come on James snap out of it" pleaded Peter.

Don't be insensitive chided Remus, "You know today is the anniversary of his parents deaths."

"Come on" yelled a completely healed Sirius attempting to distract James, "lets work on the little surprise for the girls."

"We've got to go to Hogsmeade first" said Remus exasperatedly.

"Let's take the witch statue, its closest" suggested Peter. As they were walking towards Hogsmeade Lily was talking to the headmaster.

They had just finished talking about the boy and the letter and Lily was getting ready to leave when Dumbledore asked, "On a different note, I am beginning to think about choosing the Head boy and girl. A few people that came to mind were you, Snape, a few of the current prefects and James Potter, I was wondering about your opinion of james Potter as a leader. The main reason that I am considering him is that he would be a charismatic leader and people (excluding Slytherins) would listen or obey him."

Although Lily was surprised she wasn't shocked, especially in light of this mornings events she realized that although he was primarily a immature prankster there was another side to James that she had never seen, she answered cautiously, "I think that although has many qualities that would undoubtedly make him a good leader as of now he is to immature to be a leader and role model to the school, he already has enough influence over the school population as it is, also I think that he would let himself and his friends get away with to many things."

Dumbledore seemed to consider her response and got up and opened up an object that Lily recognized as a pensieve, "I'm sure you want to be outside enjoying your Saturday Ms. Evans, so thank you for your time and I'll see what I can do about changing the way the students receive the horrible news.

At the same moment the marauders where hauling 5 cases of filibuster's fireworks towards there dormitory's. The way they saw it, it was always good to have a stash, not to mention they were going to use a few cases that night, A nice delayed welcome back for the girls.

Lily was absorbed in her thoughts when she suddenly crashed into someone. Hearing a male voice say, "Watch it mudblood" She whipped around to see Severus Snape and then she smiled because behind him one after the other James Remus Sirius and Peter walked out of a mirror. Unsettled by the smiling Lily Snape asked, "what's so funny mudbl-"

"What did you say" interrupted James contempt in his voice

"Mudblood answered Snape calmly trying to rile James.

Never, insult her again or else you will have me to answer" Said James threateningly.

"Ooh" said Snape in mock fright, "Gryffindor chivalry how noble, pity your parents aren't here to commend you for it"

By now Remus and Sirius were looking enraged, peter was a mixture of anger and fear of the ensuing fight. James and Snape were both looking at each other with contempt and had drawn their wands and Lily was unsuccessfully trying to mediate.

A few seconds later James decided that he had had enough of Snape and screamed "Stupefy"

Snape avoided the stupefying spell and laughed as Lily and Remus bounded forward to restrain James. Snape then strode off laughing. Remus and Lily were having a difficult time restraining James. Even after Snape had disappeared from view he was grunting, "Snape, twist his neck, I'll show him, parents" Finally he had calmed down enough too be released and when he had gotten ready to speak he said to Lily, "Don't ever let him treat you like that, you are much better than that, much better than him."

When Lily thought he had finished she said, "Thank you for helping me but don't do it again I can fight my own battles. As for being better than him I know that I am better than him. Don't treat me like a scared insecure little girl. I know that I am better than him I know that I am better than you. If I need help I'll ask for it, you are no better than him. You think that you're better than me, for different reasons perhaps but you are just as bad as him, you don't respect me"

"Lily" James responded tried to respond this, "I do respect you and don't ever compare me to snape, at least my hair isn't greasy."

"James give it up" advised Peter, "And no when she was RESTRAINING you she was not latching on to you in her time of need"

"Yeah I know" said James in an attempt to be nonchalant, "So are we still doing that prank today?"

"Hell yeah" answered Sirius confidently

"What time do we set the fireworks" asked Peter

"12:00" answered Remus, "OK lets divide up the jobs, and make the tapes"

That night when they were sure that the girls were asleep James and Sirius took out their brooms and ushered Remus and Peter onto each. They then got on the back and departed from their window.

They flew to the girl's side of the tower and searched for an open window. Luckily for them one of the 6th year girls had left hers unlocked. They crawled in as quietly as they could. Sirius and James then returned to their room to get 2 cases of filibusters fireworks.

There Peter and Sirius planted the filibusters. They put 2 on the ceiling with concealments on them, 1 in Lily's closet, one in Margaret's and one underneath each of their beds. Then they planted 4 on the walls.

Each firework had a code phrase that would set it off if said within a 100 foot radius. The 4 on the walls had the same phrase, the others each had a unique one.

Meanwhile James set a spell on the room that would make the boys voices be heard there between 1:30 and 3:00 Am exactly as they had been spoken in the boys dormitory between 4:30 and 6:00 pm and another spell of the same kind between 4:00 through 4:30 Am in the girls room and 6:30-7:00 pm in the boys dormitory. He then set a spell on the room that would record all noises there between 1:00 Am and 5:00 Am.

Remus was setting sound proofing charms all over the room and double checking everyone's work. When they were all done the four boys crawled through the window onto their waiting brooms and entered their dormitories.

At exactly 1:30 James pronounced, "Via Flaminia." Milliseconds later one of the fireworks on the ceiling exploded into 4 blue arrows that whizzed around the room ricocheting off of everything as if they were rubber. The girls woke up with screams, Margaret actually fell of her bed. A few minutes later however the 4 girls had calmed down and had scoured their room to find more fireworks.

Unfortunately for them however the fireworks were all well concealed. A few minutes later however the voices of the marauders were projected into their rooms. "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, And Prongs apologize for waking you. Unfortunately however you may have a rather interrupted night's sleep tonight. We apologize for the inconvenience." This whole speech was interrupted by quiet sniggers in the background.

14 minutes later the voices started up again, "OK because we regret the trouble that we are causing you we are going to tell you when the explosions come. You have around 67 seconds lets count down… 7, 6, cover your ears Padfoot, 2, 1, 0" nothing happened, "Oh that was fun can't trust us can you. For example you will find that underneath Margaret's bed is another firework, its concealed" 10 seconds later as the girls peered under the bed the firework exploded sending the actual bed a few feet upward and thoroughly frightening them.

The girls attempted to leave only to find that the doors had been sealed. Life continued like this until around 3 in the morning when the explosions finally ceased.

To the boys however this was only the sign to start the second phase of the plan. When, through their recording spell, they could no longer hear the girls talking and they were sure that the girls were sleeping they split up again. Remus, Peter and Sirius sent James back into the girl's dormitory and then went to the charms classroom lighting all the candles on the way.

Luckily the way to charms was completely devoid of windows, so they did not have to create a fake sun. They then proceeded to change all the clocks on the way to charms and light all visible hallways. The whole plan hinged on that the girls would be to sleepy and nervous to notice the little abnormalities between 5 in the morning and 11:30 Am. Once in the charms classroom they set up more fireworks in the entrance and made themselves comfortable.

Meanwhile James was working on making it look as if it was day outside by transforming one of his hairs into a candle and then multiplying it so that the candles surrounded the Gryffindor tower. Although their wasn't a sun that wouldn't be a problem because being "11:30Am" the sun would be almost directly overhead and not visible from the window.

James then climbed into the room and changed all the clocks to say 11:30. He unsealed the door, and checked the time, 11:29. As he closed the dormitory and slid down the stairs He knew that the girls had just been rudely woken by 2 firecrackers and 2 arrow fireworks and where now being treated to a recorded fake debate between Remus and Sirius about the moral implications of letting the girls oversleep and waking them up at 11:30.

He rushed towards charms changing a few missed clocks on the way, and adding a bit of light. As he ran into charms he saw the other marauders planting fireworks throughout the class, "So Remus, Sirius wasn't happy interrupting the girls night sleep and just had to scare Flitwick out of his mind to" said James.

"Yeah pretty much said Remus, "the only reason that I am agreeing to do this is because there is no way that we can be caught we just have to set a code word like; the, a, like, question, or Flitwick and let one of the first years say it while we are in Arithmancy or something."

"Clever, Sirius idea" said james appreciatively.

Just at that moment a rat scampered into the room and transformed into Peter, "the girls are coming, they bought everything" he said.

And sure enough not 20 seconds later the girls rushed into the classroom, Lily already saying, "I am so sorry that we are late prof-.)

Suddenly sirius uttered, "G'day Mate" and fire works exploded from all around the room.

Looking at the girls remus tilted his head quizzically and asked, "what _are_ you doing up at 5 Am"

"We were just-" said Margaret, "Oh you guys are so dead"

An: please review. I am ignoring a lot of Homework to do this so make it worthwhile.


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